


The Fullmetal Brothers

by orphan_account



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Ishbalan | Ishvalan Alphonse Elric, Ishbalan | Ishvalan Edward Elric, Ishbalan | Ishvalan Trisha Elric, Ishval Civil War, No Scar, follows brotherhood storyline, ishvalan Hohenheim, more tags to be added as it's written
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:55:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24506512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Edward and Alphonse are two Ishvalan brothers. Before the civil war, their father, Hohenheim, was exiled. But after their home is destroyed and their mother passes away from sickness, Hohenheim returns. It's short-lived, however, as the Crimson Alchemist destroys their family, leaving the boys to bear their father's cursed arms.The boys want their mother back. They fail.Elsewhere, Mustang hears of two Ishvalan boys in Resembool with extraordinary alchemic power. He hopes he can convince them to help his cause, even if it means they become the very thing that tore their country apart.Hey sorry I'm really terrible at summaries but this is something I thought was a cool idea and had to get it out.
Relationships: Alphonse Elric & Edward Elric, Edward Elric & Roy Mustang, Edward Elric & Winry Rockbell (as siblings)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 51





	1. Chapter 1

Edward and Alphonse never were true Ishvalans, that much was made clear by the names their father had given them. The brothers never knew their father as he was exiled for practising alchemy, or so they were told. 

They grew up with their mother happily in Ishval. That was until the civil war started. News spread fast across Ishvala, so it wasn’t a surprise when state alchemist came in and started to decimate the town the brothers called home. 

They and their mother were some of the lucky few who were able to take refuge in a town twice over. But their luck didn’t last long when their mother got sick. Already in hiding, they had nowhere to get medicine and their mother refused to let them go and surrender to the Amestrians. She died not long after. 

Then, a few days later, the brothers saw a man with tattoos covering his arms visit the unmarked grave. Ed immediately recognised the man as the brother’s father. 

When Hohenheim returned he expected to be greeted with hate and anger – he was breaking the law by even stepping foot on the land – but instead, he was greeted with the tears of his sons and sorrowful looks from his people. Ed, though upset and angry with his father, didn’t leave his side for many days. And as usual, wherever Ed was, Al was there too. 

Hohenheim told them many things about his travels. He told them of alchemy and alkahestry. He showed them his tattoos and what they meant. 

“You see Ed, Al,” He turns his head to face Ed, “My right arm has the ability to destroy and break down an object and my left,” He turns to Al, “Has the ability to create whatever I want.” 

He places both hands on the ground and it morphs into the shape of a little toy dog. Ed and Al sit there amazed while the other Ishvalans look down in disgust. But they say nothing. They are not so cruel to have the boys lose both their parents.

***

Edward would have been about 12 when their refuge was found, and the state alchemist known as “The Crimson Alchemist” started to blow everything into pieces. The brothers tried to stop their father, but Hohenheim refused to watch while his people suffered. He was face to face with said alchemist, but he didn’t realise his boys were right behind him, ready to protect the only family they had left. 

The Crimson Alchemist bared his teeth in a devilish smile.  
Hohenheim’s alchemy was nothing compared to the power of the Philosopher’s stone. Hohenheim laid in a crater of sand. Above him, he saw his sons try to fight the state alchemist with nothing but their bare hands. He just laughed at them. Then, when both threw a punch at once, the alchemist grabbed their arms and blew them clean off. The brothers fell next to their father in the crater, and the Crimson Alchemist left the three of them to die. 

But they didn’t.

Hohenheim couldn’t bear to let his sons die in this war. He could tell they were breathing, but just barely. They were both losing so much blood so quickly. 

Still, Hohenheim knew what he had to do. 

The brothers were found by two Amestrian doctors, all alone covered in blood. They took them to their makeshift hospital and tended to their wounds. 

***

Ed woke up first. He could hear people talking and moving busily all around him. 

“Al? Dad?” He tried to move but he felt so weak. 

“Oh, you’re awake? Please, don’t move or else you’ll reopen your injury.” The voice was so kind and reminded Ed of his mothers. He felt a tender hand rest on his forehead to check his temperature. So soft, not like his mothers working hands. He could barely see and his body was crying for him to go back to sleep, but he didn’t know where Al was. And he couldn’t rest until he knew he was safe. 

“Al?” He repeated, stronger than the last time.

“Brother…” He heard a faint response from a bed to his right.

Ed looked over and saw Alphonse, practically covered in bandages. “Al.” He sighed with relief. Then he noticed his brother’s left arm. “Al? What’s up with your arm?” Time felt like it moved even slower when Ed went to hold Al’s hand. Bandages fell from Ed’s own arm, revealing tattoos that Ed recognised as his fathers covering his arm. 

“Ed?” Al seemed to notice this too and looked at his own. Also covered in the same tattoos as their fathers.

The two meet each other’s eyes. A pregnant pause of realisation seemed to last forever. 

When the same doctor who told Ed to be still came around again, it seemed she noticed that the two had lost someone close to them, so she gave them some space to grieve. 

But they didn’t. The boys were used to losing now, but as long as they had each other they refused to lose another they cared about. A silent oath they both shared. 

***

Later in the evening, the doctor introduced herself as Sarah Rockbell and her husband as Yuriy Rockbell. Apparently the two of them were serving as doctors to help the injured Ishvalans. 

Al did the talking for Ed, who was too suspicious of the blue-eyed Amestrians to be friendly. But then something strange occurred. The doctor couple looked at each other and nodded. When they turned back to face the brothers they asked, “Would you boys like to stay with our family up at Resembool. We have a daughter about your age and think it would be a lot safer for you there.” 

Ed and Al sat there in silence, shocked at the offer. In the end, it was Ed who spoke. “Thank you for the offer, but we couldn’t possibly imagine putting your family in danger of the military for helping us.”

The couple just shook their head. “Don’t worry about the military,” Yuriy said. “The war is almost over anyway. And when it is, the military will stop hunting Ishvalans down. You’ll be safe.” 

Safe. Even though the brothers had only been involved in the war for a few years at most, the term safe was so foreign to them. 

Al nodded. “Thank you so much for your kindness. How can we ever repay you?” He asked.

Sarah just smiled softly. Ed really did think she resembled their mother. “You can thank us by staying alive. Now, we’ll be shipped out to go back home tomorrow since our work in this region is done, for now, so you boys should just be ready to leave with us.” And with that, she tucked the brothers into their beds and went on to look after the other patients with her husband following behind her.

“Hey brother?” Al’s voice was barely audible.  
“Yeah, Al?”  
“Do you really think we’ll finally be safe?”  
Ed rolls over in his bed to looks at him. He considers it for a moment then nods. “Yeah Al, I think we will be.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry it's really short but at least I was able to fix the issue with the number of chapters. It was a rookie mistake.

Ed didn’t like Resembool very much. It wasn’t that it was a bad place, no, it just wasn’t home. Al seemed comfortable though. The only issues they had were when they had to hide in the basement from military officers every so often, but none really came in past the front door.

Most of the time, Ed spent his days in an abandoned house near the Rockbells. He found their house too noisy, especially with their daughter Winry always hanging about. Sometimes Al followed him.

Ed wanted to know everything about alchemy, to hell with his people’s rules. It was alchemy that saved him and Al’s lives, and he was thinking that maybe it could bring back his mothers. He only researched it though. Never actually intending to act on it. He may have not cared about Ishvalan law, but he wasn’t going to commit such a terrible act of bringing back the dead.

That was until the Rockbells were called back to the front lines. They didn’t come back alive. Winry, Pinako and Al were all heartbroken. But Ed, he refused to cry. He was gripped with an overwhelming desire to see the people who saved his brother and him at least one last time. He couldn’t bear to see how sad Winry was.

A few days later there was a massive storm and the town was almost flooded, but a woman (she called herself a simple housewife) had saved them all. 

___________________

Izumi Curtis really was just passing through with her husband. She really hadn’t expected two young Ishvalan boys to run up to her and start clinging to her like monkeys. She tried to shake them off, but they just came back, begging for her to teach them alchemy. It broke her heart to hear one of the townspeople say that they had no parents. She looked to Sig and he simply nodded. 

She took them back to Dublith with her, though she didn’t expect them to last long. While she did feel a little bit guilty forcing them to try to survive on an island for a whole month, she knew that if this didn’t deter them from studying alchemy, nothing will.

Much to her surprise, the boys sat in front of her, seemingly fine. They understood what “All is one and one is all” means. She wondered if they would’ve survived in the Briggs mountains like her…

She was getting distracted. She allowed the boys at least one decent night’s rest, but Ed seemed to want to start learning everything he could as quickly as he could. 

As Izumi trained them, she could see the passion and longing for knowledge in their eyes. They were younger than she was when she started training, but they had the same spark in their eyes. When they were knocked down – and they were knocked down quite a lot – they always got back up and learnt from their mistakes. 

It wasn’t long before they had to leave. Izumi had taught them quite a lot, but it was up to them to learn the rest. It wasn’t until after the train to Resembool left that Izumi realised she had begun to think of them as her sons. 

She would miss them

___________________

Ed and Al arrived back at Resembool, ready to do what they had to. Winry had asked them to rest, but they couldn’t. Not now that they knew what they had to do. It was like Izumi had open the door to everything they already knew from their father. There but not quite in their grasp. Still, they pushed on.

Rather than the abandoned house, Ed spent his time in the library. The Rockbells didn’t know whether that was better or worse. Al seemed the same if not a bit more confident. He didn’t get upset when people from out of town got a glimpse of his red eyes and glared at him. It didn’t seem like much phased him. When asked “What changed?” he would say he believes in his brother.

There was no way those boys could have predicted how futile it all was.


End file.
